Staffing How do you manage your site plot?

[Kit the Human 759]

Branching off of the site plot vs sandpit discussion because I think Achera brought up a decent point.

 

35 minutes ago, Achera said:

I find that sites that have a site-wide plot tend to have the threads move very slowly, especially when more people get involved. There's a lot of waiting on people to get their replies in, sometimes weeks, and having to check to make sure that person is still around.

 

I've found the same thing, it's why I have a zillion characters on these kinds of sites because otherwise I get bored. I had thought that maybe you want to limit how many people are involved in any one subplot (with the idea that the subplot forwards the main plot in some way) but to make sure that everyone gets an equal chance of being involved, you have several subplots going at once. I can imagine that running into the same issues however, not to mention it sounds like a lot of admin handholding to me.

 

So how do you manage your site plot? Do you have any tactics to ensure the site plot moves forward at a steady pace or do you just accept that it'll move forward very slowly? (Maybe that's your preference!) How about getting people involved? Do you struggle with it? Do you have any tactics to make sure people get involved or can get involved?

[Samantha 64]

We have a site plot, but what we've done with our is that we have a culmination of the plot around July which is where all the people are involved and threading in it and then that gives way to the next plot. We do things that affect the board but don't necessarily have to be threaded out. Like for our site plot right now we have areas of effect where one board is affected by something (at the moment it's the sin of Pride) and the rest are normal. You can thread in the board with the effect on it for more interesting plots or threads but you don't have to. 

 

In January we'll be changing what board is being affected as well as what it's affected by. That way the overall plot is still ongoing and people can choose whether to involve their characters in it, but it doesn't require staff involvement outside writing the prompt that will be in effect for the next two months and answering any questions. The members get to choose how it affects their characters. 

 

As for the culmination of our BWP we have a whole month where the ending or the next phase of the plot is played out with all the characters who were signed up for it. We usually separate the characters into threads so we don't have 25 characters in a single thread and the threads are prompted by the staff to keep them on track and move them towards the goal (also that's where we give out injuries or have enemies attack and whatnot). The ending of that plot will usually give way to the next plot that will affect the board for the next year until July rolls around again and we have another big BWP. 

 

I will say, that for the most part, the BWPs are really just used as devices for some minor character developing and branching out. Our members enjoy the BWPs and the events we hold on the site, but as far as being seriously invested in plots - they're usually more invested in the individual ones they have with certain characters that they've plotted out and I'm okay with that. For me, the BWPs just add something more for people to participate in or use as a springboard for plots and whatnot, but they aren't the main focus. 

[Verridith 66]

Slow replies with a sitewide plot are somewhat of a thing that happens, no matter what site or genre you run; I've found having a two-month no-reply archive limit on threads has worked very well for keeping the board nice and tidy! Members seem to like the limit, and we've had no complaints thusfar =D We also have a thing in group threads, where if a person in a thread with three or more members is holding the thread up, we can poke them, and if they give no response, we give the go-ahead for the remaining members to move on with the thread. It works well, too, because folks are able to re-enter whenever they get a chance back, and because our actual activity sweeps are so far apart, a lot of folks deal with their IRL things and hop right back in when they have time again. <3

 

Threads in our sitewide plot based area really don't need to have anything specific to do with the actual sitewide plot; but this is the main canonical section (the sandbox isn't considered canon), and everything that happens in it stays in the history of the r/p. However, there are things that do affect all threads regardless of if they follow the sidewide plot or not, such as large-scale happenings in different worlds that are being played in (we destroyed, and then rebuild, one of our worlds once; and of course when this happened, you couldn't actually play in that world while it didn't exist xD). So members can run whatever subplots they want while stuff happens in the background, choosing to take part or not as they will. Super fun!

 

I also run a lot of admin-driven plot events, plot threads, 'meanwhile' and 'gossip' threads, and random events. For example, we just released a disease outbreak - we have a plot thread that outlines what's going on in said event, make a gossip entry (a thread that contains things characters may overhear or talk about), a meanwhile thread or two (single-post threads that usually detail a small part of NPC happenings, for use in player threads, as prompts, etc), and toss a few random events across threads that would be affected, to be utilized in whatever way the players in such threads want.

 

For the random events, we've done earthquakes a few times as part of the world's imbalance; and we leave the severity and effects of the earthquake up to the players. We give five posts to include the random event in the thread (though we're always open to removing it if we're accidentally interrupting a scene, but we haven't actually been asked to yet, everybody loves them LOL), and the guidelines are always super loose. In one thread of mine that was whacked with an earthquake, it was a little rumble - in another, it took out half a town lmao!

 

TL;DR there are many ways to run a sitewide plot and this is the way that I've found works best for me

[Uaithne 543]

Let me take you on a wild and crazy ride of the innerworkings of a forum organized by somebody who tends to forget things easily. . . .

 

My site plot works by using smaller subplots as little "bites" into the bigger plot cookie.

 

The Subplot Forum - I have a very specific subplot forum for staff only where each thread in the forum is a subplot.  It could be a board-wide subplot, or it could be a group family, or it could be a one-off event, whatever.  Each thread's title is the name of the subplot.  The first post of the thread follows a specific template with the what/when/who/why/where.  All other posts are just general discussion about the subplot and require no template.  There is no expiration date for these subplots, and they don't really even have to turn into actual subplots.  They can just be (nicely organized) ideas that we may never use.  Or maybe we'll return to them in 2 years and use them.  Who knows?

 

As these subplots advance or develop, the initial thread is edited to include more information.  This could be plot developments, or links to threads, or answers to questions that members had, etc.

 

Events - For events, I allow all members to participate, though I am clear about any additional requirements that may be needed (such as posting more frequently).  Normally we have one main thread and then people can create their own personal threads off of that as they wish, especially if they don't post as frequently or don't want to have a billion people in a post.

 

Also, the information for these events and the links to the RP threads and any other information goes into the Subplot Forum.

 

Lists and Lists and Lists and Lists - I make tons and tons of lists.  Relevant to the topic on hand, I will make lists so that I can remember who participated in what, and if there were any lasting effects on the characters.  I look for ways to start to create other plot ideas from what we have already established, and I list out ideas for plots in the future, and ways for things to happen, and pretty much whatever.

 

Member Initiative - I also rely on member initiative.  If people aren't willing to step forward and do stuff, it's a lot harder for me to assemble plots for them.  Some people like less interaction with plots, so I have optional methods to allow members to participate if they wish, such as having special events at certain posts counts.  But I don't just give it to them . . . they have to have established their characters well enough (15 posts) that I know that they're interested in the site and developing their characters.

 

Fanciful Features - Despite the fact that we're on a text-based roleplay, I will sometimes add artistic flair to make things more appealing.  Sometimes I'll photoshop images or find photos of buildings/locations online so that members have a better idea as to what I'm referencing.  I'll make maps, or use polyvore, or do other things like that.  I find it adds another level of interesting stuff to the plot.

 

---

 

In general, when it comes to site-wide plots, they happen canonically and if people don't participate, they can't pretend it didn't happen.  Most of the plots I've had so far on my horror site effect the entire community.  But if somebody doesn't want to RP out the specific plot, they don't have to as long as they are aware that their characters would still have experienced it.  If people post in the plot, great.  If they don't, I'm sad, but I'll just post by myself or something and still say that it happened.

 

Having specific events helps push the overall plot forward.

[Kit the Human 759]

As someone who is horribly forgetful, I should steal @Uaithnes techniques.

 

@Verridith do you have a forum standard in how long a group event thread can wait for the next post? Or is it agreed on by the participants?

 

I think that since my forums do not have a word count, 3 days is reasonable. Of course, absenses are taken into to consideration. I'm curious about what a reasonable time frame is for you and your members though. 

[Uaithne 543]

Go for it.  It's not perfect, but it works wonders for me.

 

@Kit the Human

[Quell 249]

Ark is a little baby of a site, but I'll toss some untested ideas in.

 

We use a weird mixture of site plot and player based plot. In other words, we've got things set up to cause the in character conflict that we want to push our own agenda, but we don't GM things into existence. 

 

For instance, we have plans for one of the factions to get into a civil war with in itself, and another plan for a thought-dead character to come back to life, but when it happens is going to depend on the characters in play and what they do.

 

We have a newsreel to help players keep track of what the news stations are saying so that you can have a thread that matters. (I.e. if someone is caught in a scandal, it will be public knowledge, and other characters and players can look at the news reel instead of having to read dozens of potentially irrelevant threads.)

[Verridith 66]

8 hours ago, Kit the Human said:

@Verridith do you have a forum standard in how long a group event thread can wait for the next post? Or is it agreed on by the participants?

 

I think that since my forums do not have a word count, 3 days is reasonable. Of course, absenses are taken into to consideration. I'm curious about what a reasonable time frame is for you and your members though. 

 

Two weeks, then three days; if the person holding up the thread doesn't post for two weeks, we poke them, and then they have three days from the point of poking them to reply. If they don't do it in that three days, or say go ahead before the three days is up, we move on (:

 

Sometimes, we'll have a member who hit a rough spot and tells the thread to skip them far earlier than that, but sometimes folks just don't get a chance to because RL can be a bitch, haha. That's why we came up with this system - and it works very well!

 

I may be a little over-organized on running plots and my site as a whole, but boy, has it saved my ass more times than not. XD

[SoulsRPG 15]

'Souls is character-driven, but people run their own plots, and there are pack-wide and even board-wide events that occur sometimes and can last for months.  What we do is create timelines - X happens on Dec. 23, Y happens on Dec. 29th, and so on - and allow liquid time.  People can start threads any time and backdate them to the proper time, people can have threads at the same time, people can foredate threads for the future, and so on. 

 

It puts less pressure on people to post; depending on the thread or plot, you can also "skip" players who are taking a while (beforehand, all agree on "x amount of days before we skip you" sort of thing), and it moves the thread along.  Certain events can also just be OOCly agreed upon and not played out if they don't seem interesting.  Basically, being flexible is a big part of making successful events, in my opinion!

[Elena 546]

I agree with @Sunchance. I use enough of those elements in my site-wide or faction-wide posts. And we use a board-wide calendar (timelines) for every thread, to help correlation and reading them in the actual story order.

 

On my site there are fewer site-wide plots (since we are on several ships and islands) but more like faction-wide plots (or involving several factions, like ship battles or public festivals). We have a plotting thread for the plot, where we welcome ideas and discussions. We have updates in the chronicles and also e-mails to alert the writers of faction-related characters that they are recommended to get involved, because usually when a thing happens on your ship... it should involve you too, you can't sit aside and just watch. There are things to do, to react, to think, to say...

 

I accept that it will move forward very slowly because, unfortunately, that's the speed of our board lately. Nothing I like, but nobody had ever succeeded to make people post when they don't have the time and headspace for it. They would post when they are ready. One can be reminded after 2-3 weeks that his reply is blocking the thread for all the others, but generally in big, collective threads we prefer no order and each character catches up at their own convenience. A bigger post instead of 2-3 smaller ones. That's all.

 

Edited January 2, 2018 by Elena

[Kit the Human 759]

On 30/12/2017 at 6:44 PM, Thyme said:

We have a newsreel to help players keep track of what the news stations are saying so that you can have a thread that matters. (I.e. if someone is caught in a scandal, it will be public knowledge, and other characters and players can look at the news reel instead of having to read dozens of potentially irrelevant threads.)

 

As a member, I've loved a newsreel of publicly known events. It helps me keep up with what is happening in the forum's world. 

 

As a staff member I am terrible at keeping up with it. It's something I know I need to improve on because not only is it useful, I think it's lovely to know when your plots are actually being noticed. 

 

Flexibility I think is definitely helpful in running plots, as @Sunchance said. Which doesn't mean you shouldn't have some idea of where you're going....

 

Bit like DMing a table top campaign really! 

[Quell 249]

@Kit the Human We have a submissions thread. So that we don't have to read every thread... >> Cause that would be crazy...